Abstract:

`Wearable Wireless Webcam' (`WearCam' for short)
is a wearable computer system equipped with head-mounted display,
camera(s),
and wireless communications [1],
enabling the apparatus to be used in ordinary day-to-day situations,
not just in a lab.
Two applications of the `WearCam' apparatus,
that will hopefully someday be of use
to the handicapped, are presented: The ` personal visual assistant';
and the ` visual memory prosthetic'.
The ` personal visual assistant' embodies
a spatial visual filter[2]
that reconfigures the human visual
system, providing a remapping (coordinate transformation), which might
someday be of use to the visually handicapped.
The ` visual memory prosthetic'
embodies a temporal visual filter
that provides computer-induced flashbacks (together with annotation)
that might someday be of use to those suffering from a memory disability
such as difficulty remembering faces.